A Look Back at 2019

As 2019 winds down, we would like to take this opportunity to highlight three of the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health's (FNIH) remarkable accomplishments from this year that give hope to people everywhere.

In June, the FNIH Biomarkers Consortium launched a new project to standardize biological markers (biomarkers) that will help diagnose Non-Alcoholic SteatoHepatitis (NASH)—a type of liver disease characterized by limited and painful methods of diagnosis. The "Non-Invasive Biomarkers of Metabolic Liver Disease (NIMBLE)" project will help standardize patient-friendly approaches for diagnosing and monitoring NASH by identifying new imaging-based and blood-based biomarkers to replace the current standard method of diagnosis with a less painful approach for patients. This information will help physicians identify patients who are most likely to progress to serious complications, such as liver failure or cancer.

Last month at the FNIH Annual Fall Board Dinner of the National Cancer Institute, the FNIH bestowed the second annual Trailblazer Prize for Clinician-Scientists to James Kochenderfer, M.D., for pioneering the development of immunotherapies that leverage chimeric antigen receptor T-cells to treat blood cancers—saving people's lives that would otherwise have had no hope to live. The Trailblazer Prize recognizes the outstanding contributions of early career clinician-scientists whose work has the potential to, or has led to, innovations in patient care and seeks to shine a light on the critical role the clinician-scientist plays in biomedical research and clinical care.

And most recently, the Accelerating Medicines Partnership (AMP) program for Parkinson's disease (PD) announced the launch of a new data portal that is part of a collaborative effort with the goal of translating knowledge more quickly into effective therapies for PD. The AMP model has provided a unique platform for bringing together diverse patient cohorts, advances in technology, and scientific expertise to study PD on a scale that has not been attempted before. With the AMP PD Knowledge Portal, we are helping the scientific community worldwide to fast-track discoveries that will ultimately help Parkinson's disease patients and their families.

We couldn't have achieved these milestones without the support of donors like you! You can be truly essential to our mission. Please consider the positive impact of making a gift to the FNIH. You also have the opportunity to  be a Hero for Hope and support the research that can improve, lengthen and save lives. Visit fnih.org/Heroes4Hope.

If you have any questions, please contact the Advancement department at (301) 402-5343.

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